MARBLEHEAD 101: Tom Bowen's Church

Thursday

Dec 12, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 12, 2013 at 12:14 PM

The Meeting House that stood beside Old Burial Hill was built around 1638. The exact location on Burial Hill is unknown, but its purpose was clear: It was used for town meetings, debates and to hold religious services.

Pam Peterson

The Meeting House that stood beside Old Burial Hill was built around 1638. The exact location on Burial Hill is unknown, but its purpose was clear: It was used for town meetings, debates and to hold religious services. Worshippers went there to hear Marblehead’s unordained minister, William Walton, preach, to meet their friends and neighbors, and to visit and gossip. They went summer and winter, and in winter they brought their dogs along to keep their feet warm, as dogs were allowed to sleep under the pews.

Many people went to the Meeting House, but some townspeople preferred to go to Salem to attend the Puritan church. To do so, they had to travel by ferry. They went over to the West Shore, near Naugus Head, where Tom Dixey ran a ferry service to take passengers across to Salem Harbor.

Just beside the ferry dock was a tavern owned by Tom Bowen. While they waited for the ferry, many people went in to the tavern for a little refreshment. If the ferry was a bit long in arriving, some of the husbands didn’t quite make it to all the way down the dock to the ferry, choosing instead to remain in attendance at “Tom Bowen’s Church.”

This story is still quite popular in Marblehead, as there seem to be quite a few people who wish that Tom Bowen’s establishment was still a Sunday morning option.

It is interesting to note that the first official use of the town name, Marblehead, appears in the colonial court records of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay on July 2, 1633. The record states, "James White is ffined for drunkeness by him att Marblehead on the Sabboth day." Though Tom Bowen’s tavern is not mentioned, there certainly could be a connection.

Pam Peterson is the director of the Marblehead Museum. To learn more about the Museum and about Marblehead history, see marbleheadmuseum.org.